Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga has resolved to elevate the water crisis in Nelson Mandela Bay to his office to strictly monitor the implementation of intervention measures.
The Executive announced this during a press conference held at City Hall to give an update about the current water situation, interventions and challenges.
Executive Mayor Bhanga said the situation in the City requires leadership at the highest level.
“I have taken the water crisis project to my office as the Executive Mayor of the City. I want to give full support to the Water Department to implement the master plan that is in place. However, my support will not come as a blank cheaque. My office has developed a plan to monitor progress in a number of intervention areas,” said Executive Mayor Bhanga.
The office of the Executive Mayor has identified the issue of water leaks as an urgent priority.
“My office has developed a dashboard to monitor the progress of fixing leaks, turnaround time to respond and the time it takes to fix a leak. This data will be anaylised closely to make sure that there is drastic improvement in these areas. Officials of Water Services will have to account to me for any incompetence.
We cannot expect our people to work with us and yet we are losing about 25% of our water through leaks. That is unacceptable,” said Executive Mayor Bhanga.
Currently the City loses between 25 to 30 percent through water leaks. The dams are currently sitting at a combined 17.55% of capacity.The last time NMB dams were full was November 2015. Good rains that were experienced in September 2018 raised the dams to just above 50%.
Another intervention that will be implemented in the short term that the Executive Mayor announced was the installation of water restrictors in residents’ water meters. The restrictors will control and limit the flow of water to each resident across the City. Residents who use more that the stipulated 500 litres per day or 15 kilolitres per month will have their water cut off.
“We can no longer treat the water situation as normal. It needs drastic measures to save our livelihoods. The eventuality of having dry taps has huge repercussions for the economy and our desperate need for the creation of jobs. We need to act now before it is too late,” said the Executive Mayor.
Fitting of water restrictors will be unrolled across the City, targeting high water users. Following a failed warning notice to a high water user, municipal water technicians will be despatched to install a water restrictor to the resident water meter.
Other short-term plans include installation of a Barge at the Impofu Dam, which will boost the system with 30 Ml/d.The operationalisation and maximisation of the operation of the Grassridge Temporary Treatment Works will put 35 Ml/d into the system.
Some of the intervention measures that the Executive Mayor shared were of a medium to long term nature. Medium term plans include the completion and commisioning of the Nooitgedagt Low Level Scheme Phase 3, which is expected to be ready by September this year. On completion, the total peak supply capacity will be 210 Ml/d.
Longer term plans that the City hopes to start implementing and commissioning includee the Coegakop Water Treatment Works, which is expected to be completed by September 2022. This borehole facility will give us a total of 15 Ml/d.
The desalination of sea water is one of the longer term projects that the City hopes to start implementing within two years from now.
In a meeting that the Executive Mayor Bhanga held with Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) recently, the Mayor agreed to team with the SEZ for desalination to commence. This plant will add 15 Ml/d into the system.
The City also has plans to construct another desalination plant at Skoenmakerskop, which on completion will put into the system 30 Ml/d.
Nelson Mandela Bay is restricted by the Department of Water and Sanitation to extract 268 million liters per day only. Currently as a city we are using about 300 million litres per day.
“All these plans clearly indicate a City with a plan. All is needed here is for us as leadership to take responsibility for our roles, canvas funding from the national spheres of government, support the Department with all the support they need and make sure that there is a clear implementation plan with timeframes. If all of these plans can be implemented, im sure it is clear for everyone that the narrative of day zero is not a reality for this City,” added Executive Mayor Bhanga.
NMB Communications
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